UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

On 21st June 2007, yahoo.com reported that Damien Hirst, 42, a British artist, is now the world’s most expensive living artist, upstaging a title held for years by American Jasper Johns. Hirst’s work, Spring Lullaby was sold on 21st June at Sotheby’s for USD19 million (that’s almost RM60 million).

Spring Lullaby is not a painting, nor a sculpture. It’s a pill cabinet. A what? Exactly: that’s what first struck me. Would you pay that much for this?

Can’t make it out? Well, it’s a stainless steel and glass cabinet with painted cast pills, created in 2002. It’s dimensions are about 182cm x 274cm x 10cm. In other words, it’s shaped like a plasma screen.

Looking closer, this is what you see: (more…)

Popularity: 2% [?]

Some interesting, and perhaps little known facts about African-Americans (blacks) in the US Military:

Cathay Williams: first African-American woman to enlist in US Army. She enrolled on 15th November 1866 using the name William Cathay. An Army surgeon examined her and determined that she’s fit for duty, even though U.S. Army regulations at that time did not allow the enlistment of women. She was assigned to the 38th U.S. Infantry and was hospitalised at least 5 times. Amazingly, no one ever discovered she was a female. She was given a “disability discharge” after less than two years of service. The exact medical reasons are unknown.

Lieutenant Henry Ossian Flipper: first African-American to graduate from West Point, the elite US military academy. Entered the Academy in 1873, graduated in 1877. He was commissioned second lieutenant and assigned to the 10th Cavalry Unit. Unfortunately, 5 years later he was controversially dismissed for “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentlemen” following questionable charges of embezzling funds. Throughout his life afterwards, he maintained his innocence. He died in 1940. Almost 60 years after his death, President Clinton granted him a presidential pardon.

Brigadier General Benjamin O Davis, Sr: first African-American to achieve the rank of General. Entering the military in 1898, 42 years later (1940) he became the first black General Officer in the history of the U.S. Army earning the rank of brigadier general.

Source
goarmy.com

Popularity: 2% [?]

A 2001 article published by US Department of Defense stated that there are between 5 and 7 million muslims in the United States, and that they make up between 10,000 and 20,000 members of the American military, although some other estimate put that number lower, at 4,000. There are estimated to be 1.4 million active members of the US military.

The first ever Muslim chaplain (imam) in US military history is Army Chaplain (Major) Abdul-Rasheed Muhammad, 54 who joined the military in 1982 and was appointed chaplain in 1993.

Meanwhile, The BBC reported on 20th June 2007 that the first Muslim chaplain of the elite US Marines, and only the second in the whole US Navy is Navy Lieutenant Commander Abuhena Saifulislam (Chaplain Saif), 45.

Arriving from Bangladesh in 1989, he enlisted in the Navy as a payroll specialist in 1992, became a US citizen in 1995, and 3 years later signed up for a chaplain’s candidate program.

Sources
defenselink.mil
The American Muslim – Muslims and Arabs in the US military
The BBC
usmilitary.com
defendamerica.mil

Popularity: 2% [?]

UPDATE 25th April 2010

The BBC reported today that probably the world’s greatest living matador, Jose Tomas, 34 has been badly gored by a 500kg bull in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

Ouch! And it’s not his first serious goring since his comeback in 2007.

He’s in serious condition in hospital after losing up to 8 litres of blood due to a 10cm wound on his groin, which tore apart a vein and an artery.

It was so serious that he was operated right inside the arena and officials appealed over the PA system for compatible blood donors – he has an A+. He later underwent an operation lasting several hours.

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17th June 2007

The Star reported today that the world’s most famous active matador, Jose Tomas, 31 has made a comeback after a 5-year absence. He rarely gives interviews, but for this occasion, he did, to newspaper El Pais in May, giving his reason for coming back, which is “living without bullfighting is not living.” Well, some people might say it’s all about money…

What made the comeback especially special is that he mysteriously retired, after being active for 7 years, at the top of his career in September 2002, when he was merely 27. Such is the anticipation that the tickets for the place where he made his reappearance has sold out for the first time in 22 years: touts charged almost USD700 for front row seats – that’s more than 7 times more than the normal price.

But what makes him so stand out from the others?
- even when compared with other matadors, he’s even more steely and daring: gets very close to the bull and shows “utter disregard for the danger.”
- his best performance is probably the legendary fight in July 2002 where he won one of the sport’s highest accolades: rewarded both ears and the tail of the bull he just killed: that signifies a masterful performance.

During the comeback performance, he had to take on 2 bulls. Predictably he looked a bit rusty and was almost gored by the first bull. Still, he was awarded an ear for the first bull and two ears for the other. Later, he was awarded a matador’s highest honour: carried out of the ring on the shoulders of fans.

Here’s a video of his comeback performance:

Compare that to a video of his performance before he retired (not sure which year this was taken).

But is Jose Tomas the greatest bullfighter of all time? Is he better than the great Manolete (1917-1947), who died after being gored by a bull in 1947? Manuel Laureano Rodríguez Sánchez, better known as Manolete, is considered by some to be the greatest bullfighter of all time. His wikipedia entry says: “His style was sober and serious, with few concessions to the gallery, and he excelled at the ‘suerte de matar’, the kill. He died following a goring in the right upper leg as he killed the fifth bull of the day, the Miura bull Islero, an event that left Spain in a state of shock… General Francisco Franco, then ruler of Spain, ordered three days of “national mourning”, during which only funeral dirges were heard on the radio.”

Another contender for the title is Juan Belmonte (1892-1962) who is considered by many to be the greatest matador of all time. Why is that? He revolutionized the art of bullfighting: his technique was unlike that of other matadors: standing erect, nearly static and always very close (inches) of the animal. This resulted in Belmonte being frequently gored with many serious wounds. All said, Belmonte could be the winner of this title, since he already has a movie made about him in 1995.

Sources
The Star
The Age (Australia)
Wikipedia
Canadaeast.com
paspespuyas.com

Popularity: 15% [?]

Back in May I mentioned the world’s best vocalists 12 years of age and under. On 11th June 2007 Connie Talbot, 6 auditioned on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent. She got a standing ovation and impressed the judges, including none other than Simon Cowell. Another judge, Amanda Holden was in tears. I think most of the 7 million viewers were impressed too.

In fact, Simon the pop mogul was so impressed that he has agreed to sign her up to his record label, Sony BMG for a seven figure amount (in pounds sterling!).

She is now being dubbed the “next Charlotte Church”.

Cowell told The Daily Mail on 14th June: “This girl is just special. I have never felt such a powerful silence in my life as when Connie sang. It was pure magic. She’s all over the world at the moment, this girl – she’s the number one clip on YouTube, for instance – and that’s a worldwide number one. She’s got a wonderful opportunity here and I’ll make a prediction that Connie will sell more records than Joss Stone this year [Joss Stone has sold 7.5 million copies worldwide her first 2 albums]. She could easily make a million quid-plus this year… I think a comparison with Charlotte Church is interesting – she’s certainly got a shot.”

She’s a natural talent: apparently she never went for singing lessons because her parents could not afford it, and only practiced singing on karaoke. Her mother said that Connie only found out her talent when she was singing the DVD to the Wizard of Oz to cheer up her late grandmother who was ill with cancer. It was her grandmother to told Mrs Talbot that Connie’s really something. Connie was 4 years old when her granny died. She sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow at the funeral.

Video of her audition, singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow: (more…)

Popularity: 22% [?]

Approval ratings for US presidents were started by Gallup after the Second World War. The lowest approval ratings were by not by George W Bush, even though at 28 percent (at the time of writing), it’s pretty bad. Richard Nixon’s 23 percent, at the aftermath of the Watergate Scandal is worse, but still it’s not the worst ever.

The worst ever approval rating for a US president is for President Harry S Truman in February 1952, at 22 percent. How did it turn out so bad for someone who started out on his presidency at an approval rating of almost 90 percent?

It was in the ending stages of the Korean War. More than 36,000 American army personnel had died and Truman had sacked the popular General Douglas MacArthur in April 1951, who led the US Army in Korea. In an interview with Time Magazine, Truman was quoted to have said “I fired him [MacArthur] because he wouldn’t respect the authority of the President. I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail.”

Problems in Korea and general dissatisfaction with the sacking of MacArthur made Truman very unpopular, even his own party looked to other candidates for the upcoming presidential election. Truman, who was seeking a third term as president, lost to Estes Kefauver in March 1952 in the New Hampshire primary. That means he did not even make it as a Democrat candidate for the presidency. That’s quite a fall. Hence, Truman’s reelection campaign could not even be started.

However, 22 percent seems quite high when compared to probably the lowest approval rating for a national leader in a democracy. Single digit figures (5 to 8 percent) approval ratings have been quoted for (more…)

Popularity: 5% [?]

The BBC reported in June 2007 that Prince Philip (The Duke of Edinburgh) the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, is regarded as a god by the Yaohnanen tribe who live on the island of Tanna, Vanuatu in the South Pacific. They believe that he is divine and son of a mountain spirit.

Exactly how he became to be regarded as a god is unclear, but ancient tales told of the story of the son traveling to a faraway land, married a lady of power and would later return. Back in the 1950s or 60s, the Yaohnanen saw that Queen Elizabeth II was treated with respect by British colonial officers. Somehow they concluded that her husband is none other than the son of their mountain spirit. Hence the birth of the cult.

As fate would have it, the Royal Couple visited Vanuatu in 1974 and villagers had the opportunity to see the prince for themselves.

Prince Philip initially did not know that he’s regarded as a god until John Champion, the British Resident Commissioner in Vanuatu between 1975 and 1978 told him. Perhaps mischievously, Champion suggested that Prince Philip give them a portrait. He discreetly did, but not before autographing it.

Chief Jack Naiva, 80 holding the first picture given by the Prince: (more…)

Popularity: 8% [?]

Ananova.com reported in April 2007 that the Rubbel Sexy Lager beer bottle’s label was so controversial that it was stripped from sale in the United Kingdom.

Apparently each bottle of the Belgian lager produced by Brouwerij Huyghe featured a picture of a woman wearing a removable swimsuit on its label, and that there are at least 4 different pictures available. One could then scratch her clothes off until she’s totally in the nude.

The Portman Group, an alcohol industry regulator has not only ruled that the label is too risque but also its name. It said that if it were to be allowed, drinkers could associate the tipple with sexual success. The more you drink, the more successful you are with women. In reality, it could be the reverse.

Sample images on labels (obtained from various sources): (more…)

Popularity: 10% [?]

The BBC reported in February 2007 that Chanda Musalman, 40 of Nepal is probably the world’s only person who is legally recognised to be both a man and a woman. The government of Nepal have decided that Musalman, who is anatomically a male but dresses and behaves like a woman, should have that unprecedented legal status.

It has opened up quite a few interesting legal questions, like for example: if he/she ever got married, who will be considered the husband/wife, and hence distribution of property?

Musalman has never undergone surgery to make him anatomically a woman, but asked that his gender be recognised as “both”. Amazingly, the authorities obliged.

Source
The BBC

Popularity: 5% [?]

Olympic-museum.de has listed the world’s worst performances at the Olympics. These are athletes who did not drop out when they were down and out, but gritted their teeth and finished their event.

They include Raul Giraldo Mazorra Zamora of Cuba who in the 1952 Olympics clocked 31 seconds for the 200m. Heck, even my slowest ever time is better than that, notwithstanding the fact that he ran the event more than half a century ago. I mean, even during the first Olympics (1896), the men can already run about 12 seconds for the 100m.

Then there was Ralf Leberer of Germany who clocked 56.74 seconds for the 110m hurdles at the 2000 Olympiad. In an event where times below 14 seconds are expected, what more at Olympics level, he clocked a time more suited to a typical secondary school 400m event. This is not to say that Leberer is a substandard athlete. He regularly clocks world-class times, but on that particular day, he fell short of the finish line during his heat. Somehow, he managed to get up and cross the finish line.

And there was Eric “Eric The Eel” Moussambani (b. 1978) who swam 1:52.72 for the 100m freestyle during the 2000 Olympics. Video: (more…)

Popularity: 42% [?]

There might be love at first sight, but isn’t this ridiculous?

Carl Hockings, 36, of South Wales is a single father of 2 kids aged 6 and 9. Danielle is 26 and of the US. They first met, by chance, on the Internet playing the card game gin online. He said he was stressed out with work and hence decided to head to the online card site to relax and wind down, and that’s where he found Danielle.

After more online card playing, emails and instant messaging, 10 months later, they decided to see each other for real. He flew 4,000 miles to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and she waited for him there.

Right there at the airport, while walking to the train station, 4 minutes after meeting her in the flesh for the first time, he went down and asked for her hand in marriage.

She accepted and wedding bells rang 4 months later. Later she followed him back to South Wales and they now have a daughter.

Danielle said when they first met online, he was really funny and they clicked straight away. Carl said they got on so well and seemed to have telephathic understanding of what the other was thinking. However, anybody can pretend to be somebody else online. How can you know for sure he’s really like that in real life? Even when after meeting for the first time, how could you make up your mind after a mere 4 minutes? I think this is a very rare case – totally not recommended to propose that quick!

Carl even said that they had fallen in love BEFORE even exchanging pictures.

source

Popularity: 7% [?]

Forumer.com is probably the world’s most popular free web forum provider. Established in 2003, as at the time of writing, it claims to host a whopping 151,212 forums, 8.5 million total users / members, more than 30 million threads, and an amazing 120 million posts.

The forum software used is phpBB and IPB.

It was formerly known as FreeIB, but was bought over in 2004: new programmers hired, site redesigned and relaunched under its present name. Judging by growth in the number of new members, its popularity then enjoyed a huge 3000% surge till today.

Ad supported, it will remove the ads for USD5 per 30K pageviews.

It used to have a blog hosting service too but that’s closed to new members for at the moment.

One of the forums hosted there is the very useful Malaysia-based Renovation Talk. It is testament to the popularity of the forum that some users who joined a mere 6 months ago already made more than 20,000 posts.

Popularity: 22% [?]

According to Stan Schroeder of franticindustries.com, there are 6 blogs utilising feedburner (arguably the world’s most popular RSS feed manager at more than 600,000 feeds) with more than 100,000 subscribers. Stan focused on blogs written in the English language only.

They are, in ascending order:

108,000 subscribers: 43folders, a blog by Merlin Mann on “tricks, hacks & other cool stuff”
142,000 subscribers: Mashable, a blog about “social networking news”
151,000 subscribers: Interesting Things of the Day, which is “an ongoing series of entertaining and educational articles about unusual or intriguing topics of all kinds. Subjects include foods, places, language, ideas, history, science, and many more.”
232,000 subscribers: Simply Recipes, which is about “Healthy recipes, cooking tips, product reviews for the home cook”
385,000 subscribers: BoingBoing, a “directory of wonderful things”

And the title of the blog with the world’s most number of feedburner subscribers, with 413,000 subscribers is (more…)

Popularity: 9% [?]

Checking up on digg.com, as at 3.45pm on 3rd June 2007, the 3rd most dugg article (across all categories) is “New Digg v3 Launched” which was posted more than 300 days ago. It got more than 16,000 diggs.

The 2nd most dugg article is “Apple Announces iPhone”, submitted 144 days ago, with more than 23,000 diggs.

The most dugg article of all time, with more than 39,000 diggs is (more…)

Popularity: 1% [?]

This year’s Miss Universe beauty pageant, held starting 28th May in Mexico, is different from before.

Miss Jamaica, Zahra Redwood will be the first ever Rastafarian contestant, meaning she will appear in dreadlocks. Plus, she’ll wear a Bob Marley T-shirt.

Miss Tanzania, Flaviana Matata will be the first ever bald contestant.

Miss Sweden will not be there because the general consensus in her country is that the competition is degrading to women and is scandal-ridden. The country is one of the few to have won the crown thrice. So sorry, Isabel Lestapier Winqvist, 20. Even the Miss Sweden contest did not have the traditional swimsuit competition. Feminists there are very influential indeed.

Miss Mexico Rosa Maria Ojeda was originally slated to appear in a bullet-studded belt and a skirt bearing images of hanging bodies and firing squads. No go – she was asked to change to a boring vege and fruit design instead.

Miss Ecuador, Lugina Cabezas, appeared holding a fake, but bloodstained banderilla (barbed stick stuck in the back of bulls during bullfighting). Animal rights groups are outraged.

source
missuniverse.com
The Star

Popularity: 4% [?]